I am wanting to purchase a wireless video system for my planes and was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on the smallest, best range, best picture quality camera? I was looking at the draganfly camera setup and from the videos it looks to be very small, good quality video, and with a 2.4 Gig range. Any body have any suggestions??

YES YES YES!

SUGGESTIONS:

(letme check my favourits task bar)

www.hicam.com.au - this is a very nice package

http://www.wirelessvideocameras.com/ - this site has a lot of ads, that might be confusing, but you can find wireless video systems with a range of 1 - 20 miles

I'm gonna get me one of these toys also, once I build my plane. Many people here answered very negativly about my plans, cause I told them I wanted a wireless system with a range of >5 miles with a radio capable of handling that range.

(I still don't see what's wrong with that, if I get a license)

I design and build the video systems sold at http://www.BlackWidowAV.com

The Draganfly uses a CMOS camera which is generally not the best choice for mobile applications.

The unit at hicam uses the same CCD camera as the Black Widow system, but they charge $200 more.

Example videos from my system are here:

http://blackwidowav.tripod.com

Here's a still shot taken from my video system:

I Looked at the black widow system. It looks cool. How would vidio from it look from say 1000 feet? Would it be reasonable or would I want to run a doubler or Zoom lense?

I guess it depends on what you want to accomplish. At 1000 feet you get a pretty broad view of the ground. If you want to see into that pretty girl's backyard, you will need a zoom lense

The 53 degree lense gives a good perspective, not so wide that it becomes a fishbowl, but not so narrow as to limit what you can see.

- Bill

yb2normal wrote:

>The Draganfly uses a CMOS camera which is generally not the best
>choice for mobile applications.
>
>The unit at hicam uses the same CCD camera as the Black Widow
>system, but they charge $200 more.



What you said about CMOS sounds correct, from what everyone says, but about your other comment...

I don't know if it's all that cool to make negative comments about a competitor in a public forum (esp. if they're not here to reply)

The hicam camera looks totally different. There's a pic of the blackwidow in rcgroups:

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/attac...?postid=611424

I don't know, it just looks completely different... the lens, the enclosure, the cable. The blackwidow looks a bit home-made maybe ?

There also appear to be significant differences in transmitter features. Perhaps you are comparing an apple with a banana?

Just my 2 cents worth... feel free to disagree ;-)

Pete.

Hi Pete,

There isn't really much to disagree with what you said

The feature differences between the hicam unit and the black widow unit are fairly minor to my eyes, but then again I suppose it is human nature to believe ones work is better than another. You would be doing me a great favor if you told me what differences you see as 'significant'. Since I am very close to the hobby, my perceptions are probably bias.

Regarding the price comment, I'm one of those cheap sorts who likes to get the best equipment I can for the least money, so that's why I mention the $200 difference. Coming from the guy who sells one of the systems, I guess my comments would sound very self serving, and for that I appologize.

Anyway, please do let me know what major differences you see in the systems. It helps me understand what consumers find important, and could very well help other readers of the thread make an informed purchasing decision.

Kind Regards,
Bill

Hi Bill,

I might have to buy both systems before I can comment in depth ;-)

I guess there are a 2 points of view. One is the cheap route. The other is the "drool factor" - standard of finish & appearance, not just features, although I do like the on/off switch and housings.

For a cool look on my best tool, I'd probably go for the hicam, but this is just personal taste. I respect both viewpoints ;-)

Pete

I hear ya'... when you have the cash to throw around, sometimes it feels good to spend more for the same final results. That would explain all the Mercedes passing me on the highway

well.. in order to fully understand the differences between the two systems, you (the blackwidow system) have to provide a much more detailed list of specifications..

i know very little about wireless technology.. but can probably guess.. that the hitech system has a much longer range.. just from looking at it's antena...

once you publish the specs.. i think all of us will be able to distigesh the differences better.. and to point out, if there ARE any MAJOR differences...

-eugn

I will gladly tell you anything you want to know. I'll start with the basic technical specifications:

Range: 1/4 mile with very good video. The system operates out to about twice this range, but with reduced video quality (snow, drop-outs, etc).

Hicam uses the same CCD camera that I use, so the specs will be the same.

All up weight of aerial portion: 2.0 ounces, which includes camera, transmitter, and antenna.

Transmitter power requirements: 5 to 11 volts. The RF power output is the same (100mw) regardless of whether you run the system at 5 volts or 11 volts, due to the design of the voltage conversion circuitry. I run a system on 2 lithium-polymer cells (which are gaining popularity among electric flyers) which gives excellent run time with very light batteries.

If there any other questions, please let me know!

Regards,
Bill

yb2normal,

I see transmitter on your site that looks like transmitter behind camera on dragonfly.

I refer to this:
http://www.blackwidowav.com/spidermite.html

But your transmitter has no camera attached so maybe a different transmitter?

Just curious, it looks like a dragonfly-sort-of system can be made by starting with your tx and adding camera, but total price is less than draganfly...if transmitter is the same that is... and you like solder fumes

C.F.